Sherwood Forest – Kings Clipstone Village was the royal heart of the mediaeval Sherwood Forest. On our community website find out about the current day village and surrounding hamlets. See the maps of Sherwood Forest, guides for walking and footpaths in Sherwood Forest, cycling and cycle routes in Sherwood Forest, places to see in Sherwood Forest and their history. Find out about King John’s Palace, Parliament Oak, Archway House, the Flood Dykes, Clipstone Park water meadows and much more.

With an ‘important provincial royal palace’ used by all the Plantagenet Kings for 200 years, Kings Clipstone was ‘the royal heart of ancient Sherwood Forest’. Its position is still crucial as it straddles the shortest gap between the northern and central parts of the forest where the River Maun cuts through the forest. It was the availability water from the River Maun and the Vicar Water brook that sustained the mediaeval village.
The map shows extent of the modern day Sherwood Forest. Most of the area covered by the ancient forest is still covered by trees today. There are more trees in Sherwood now than in the ancient wood.

The forest owes its survival to the fast draining sandlands of of the Forest have always been of low value for agriculture, although where irrigation is available they have become the second most important vegetable growing area in the country.

Kings Clipstone is a heritage hot-spot

The remains of King John’s Palace – a £106.000 stabilisation scheme funded by English Heritage and Nottinghamshire County Council was completed in 2009. These ruins, of what a recent English Heritage report called an ‘important provincial royal palace’, were in danger of complete collapse. The most iconic and important site within Sherwood Forest could have been lost. Why not visit the site – access is via the gateway off the B6030 at the western end of the village.

This 1950s photo shows the ruins of Beeston Lodge, the gatehouse of the original fortified pele built above the Spar Ponds during the Great Famine of 1315-17. Neglect and vandalism destroyed these last standing walls leaving just a pile of stones on the ground.